(RNS) — More than 550 rabbis and cantors have signed a letter objecting to President Trump’s crackdown on universities for what the administration calls tolerance of antisemitism, calling Trump’s executive orders and detentions of students who criticized Israel “cynical attacks on higher education.”
Its signers, who mostly represent Reform, Conservative and Reconstructionist synagogues and institutions, include a broad swath of liberal Jewish leaders who oppose many of Trump’s policies beyond his disciplining of academia. Only a handful of Orthodox leaders signed the statement.
The letter, “A Call to Moral Clarity: Rejecting Antisemitism as a Political Wedge,” was jointly organized by J Street, the liberal American Jewish organization dedicated to a two-state solution in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and T’ruah, The Rabbinic Call for Human Rights.
Rabbi Elliott Tepperman of Bnai Keshet, a Reconstructionist synagogue in Montclair, New Jersey, who helped edit the statement and is co-chair for the rabbinic cabinet for J Street, said the 550 rabbis and cantors who signed were the “tip of the iceberg.”
“I’m quite sure that the vast majority of American Jews support the sentiment behind this,” Tepperman said on Monday.
The letter begins by saying that the signatories are committed to fighting the rising tide of antisemitism. But it quickly adds: “… we cannot allow the fight against antisemitism to be twisted into a wedge issue, used to justify policies that target immigrants …